1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of telecommunications. In particular, a call management system is provided for selectively controlling, monitoring and reporting on the use of selected wireless telephones.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The use of wireless telephones is widespread. Their increasing functionality, decreasing price, and the demand for fast, easy access to voice communications ensure that the popularity of such devices will continue. These advantages, plus their portability and versatility, make them very useful in enabling communication with and among employees or representatives of an organization. For example, salespersons can be in contact with a home office between visits to clients in order to receive the latest price and product information, place orders, etc., or police officers may be issued wireless telephones to use in certain situations in order to leave police radio facilities free for other use. A police department may, for instance, use wireless telephones in place of police radio equipment to prevent others from intercepting radio broadcasts.
Organizations taking advantage of the benefits of wireless communications typically do so by issuing wireless telephones to selected employees. Alternatively, the organization may simply reimburse employees for their acquisition, usage, and/or maintenance costs.
Extensive subsidization of wireless telephone usage within an organization requires some form of management and control, however, lest the cost to the organization become prohibitive. For example, with most wireless telephones all usage is billed--regardless of whether the usage involves an outgoing or incoming call. When the usage is related to the employee's official duties for the organization, the cost is normally to be borne by the organization. However, payment for personal use of an assigned wireless telephone may be the responsibility of the employee if there is no organizational policy to the contrary. An organization may, for example, be willing to permit personal use of a wireless telephone assigned to an employee provided that the employee reimburses the organization for some or all of such use. There is thus a need to determine the type of usage of a subsidized wireless telephone (i.e., official or personal) and to report to the organization on the type and level of use of the telephone.
Controlling the usage of wireless phones by requiring each caller to input an access code or account number in order to dial a telephone number outside the organization has been heretofore unknown. This is because the switch that handles calls from an organization's wireless telephones is typically not owned or operated by the organization and is therefore beyond its control. Instead, calls from the organization's wireless telephones are received and handled by a wireless switching center that is external to the organization. In addition, the switching center simultaneously handles calls from numerous users other than the organization. Controlling, or even reporting, the usage of a subsidized telephone thus requires some method of determining which calls into the switching center involve organization-subsidized telephones. Also, even if outgoing calls from a subsidized wireless telephone could be identified and controlled in this manner, incoming calls would still need to be controlled if they are to be billed as well.
Effective management of its wireless telephones also requires adequate reporting to the organization concerning the telephones' usage. Reported data for each subsidized telephone preferably includes enough information to determine whether each use was for official or personal purposes, plus details such as times and duration of use.
There exists, therefore, a need for a system and method for controlling wireless telephone usage in order to prevent or report unofficial usage and to report or account for official usage.
Besides identifying each call as official or personal in nature, an employee should be able to specify a specific account number to which a call is to be assigned. For each call so assigned, it should be reported to the organization or the employee under the assigned account.
There is therefore also a need in the art for a system and method for assigning a call to or from a specified wireless telephone into one of a plurality of accounts.